Chinese Lantern Illustration in Procreate

1. Intro: Hi everyone. I'm Marissa. I'm a teacher, illustrator and surface designer. I was born and raised in China and they moved to Australia in the early 20th to today. So in this class, I'm going to reflect on my own culture and show you how to draw a Chinese lantern in Procreate, you will get to know a bit about the Chinese lanterns and what they mean in the Chinese culture. You will also learn how to draw a unique Chinese Lenton from start to finish. The most interesting part is that you will be using the eraser as a brush to create the Lenten. It's a bit tricky, but you'll be able to do it after taking this class. We will start by gathering inspiration from the Chinese lanterns in real life, looking into its structure, then sketch out the Linton calibrating, and then use the eraser to cover all the details on the Lenten. All you need for this class is just an iPad and the stylus that works with your iPad, you will be provided with the other resources such as a brush pick a color palette, some background paper, and inspiration board, and then info sheet. So without further ado, let's get started. 2. Class Project & Resources: For the class project, you'll be creating a unique Chinese Lenton in Procreate, following these steps, find inspiration. Sketch out your Lenton ink and calorie in your Lenton. Draw motif on the main body at filler patterns. And lastly, change colors. You can find the resources list in this class under the projects and resources tab right here. Make sure you're watching the class on the Skillshare webpage. If you're watching it on the Skillshare app, unfortunately, you won't be able to find the resources. So let's download the list and save it to Files on my iPad. You can find the list in your files folder right here. In the next lesson, we'll learn something about the Chinese lanterns and find inspiration for our project. 3. Inspiration: In this lesson, we'll start by looking at some examples of Chinese lanterns. When I was planning this course, I wasn't able to go to China and take some pictures to show you what the Chinese lanterns are like over there. So I asked my dad for favor to take some photos for me while he and my mom were traveling in the northern regions of China. I'll show you here a couple of pictures that he took at the time. So basically, a Chinese lantern is a collapsible paper bag with a candle or light bulb inside. It's a celebrated symbol in the Chinese culture. If you travel to China, you will see Chinese lanterns in many places. People like displaying them outside their houses or along the streets. Not just to lighting up the place in the dark, but also represent joy and good fortune. I also put together a Pinterest board with images of Chinese lanterns. You can find the link to it in the resource list. You can see they're all in red because the color red is also a symbol of joy and good fortune in the Chinese culture. But you don't have to limit yourself to the use of color red. You can, of course, try out the colors in your work. So the most common shapes of Chinese lanterns are round and oval. They also come in other shapes like cylinders as well. So you can sketch out the shape of your Chinese Lenton according to these reference images. If you are stuck in getting the shapes right, I do have an info sheet that shows you some common shapes of Chinese lanterns. So it's in the resource list right here. So in the examples here you can see they have a very similar structure. They all have a hanging strings that connects to the main body of Dilantin. The main body has a top end and the bottom end, and then below the bottom. And they're usually some tassels or other ornaments. So you can use one of these shapes to help create your artwork. Let me save it to Files so we can use it later in our sketch. Now let's spend a bit of time downloading and organising the other resources on the list. If you have taken my other classes, you probably know how to put all these resources in place. So go ahead and do it and jump to the next lesson when you're ready. But if you are not sure how to do it, you can just now follow along. 4. Sketching Your Lantern: Let's open up, procreate and set a new canvas to 3,000 pixels. By 3,000 pixels, you can set the dimensions have been higher or lower than this depending on the capacity of your iPad. Then I'll bring in the background paper that I just downloaded from the resource list. So go to Actions. Add, Insert a File, then choose one of the background paper. Then in the Layers menu, I'll name this layer just to stay organized. The next step is to set up the Canvas in a symmetrical way. So let me create a new layer first and then go to actions. Again. Choose Canvas this time. Turn on the Drawing Guide. And then we need to edit the Drawing Guide to make sure it's under symmetry. Then in the options below, we choose vertical. I always test it out to make sure this symmetrical function actually works. I would suggest you do the same. Another way to check this is to go to the Layers menu. You can see the highlighted layer has the word Assisted on it. That means the drawing assist, the function is switched on. And now we can start making a sketch of the Chinese lantern out, bring up my files folder, put it aside, and then select the info sheet. I choose this example as a reference to do my sketch. All right. Now I've got the basic shape of the Lenten. I can start thinking about what I can draw on the main body. If you look back at the Pinterest board, you can see the lengthens in real life are mass produced. They look pretty much the same. Our goal for this project is to create your own unique Chinese Linton so you can really go with your creativity here. I will suggest you spend a bit of time deciding on the motif. It can be fluorophores, plants, animals, people, or abstract. I'll be drawing florals on my Lenton. Feel free to follow along if you want to. 5. Inking & Coloring Your Lantern: Now that my sketch is done, I can start inking. So let me create a new layer on top of the sketch. And make sure you turn on the Drawing Assist function for this inking layer. Then I'll choose a brush from the all star brush pack. I'll be using the dry brush from this brush pack because I like the fact that it has a bit of texture to it. And I think it will work well with this project. But of course you can use whatever brush you like. And now I'll start and King the Lenton. Now I'm up to these tassels in the bottom, and I like to draw them a bit differently. Instead of drawing them in loose lines, I like to put them into groups. Let me show you what I mean. I'll draw the overall shape of the tassels and then calorie in this area. To put this tassels into groups, I'll be using the eraser as a brush to carve out the shapes and to make sure you're using the same brush as an eraser, you can go to the eraser menu and then find the brush you want. You can also tap and hold the eraser symbol so it automatically changes to the current brush you're using. So this is what I mean by putting these tassels into groups. It's impossible to draw every single tassel inhale. So when we are presenting them in an artwork, It's okay to group them in small bunches in this way. You probably noticed when I was coloring in the Tussaud's, I didn't use color drop and that is dragging the color to fill in the area. That's because the brush I'm using is quite textured. E.g. if I'm drawing a shape over here and then do a color drop, you can see is not colored in properly. And if I'm using a very opaque brush like this one, and draw another shape and then do a color drop. It wouldn't be an issue. So it really depends on what kind of brush you are using. You need to consider if doing color drop is the best option to color in your work. There is, however, a way to fix it. Let me undo a few steps. So if you're using a texture brush and you really want to do a color drop, you can drag the color onto the shape and then keep dragging it to the right. It will increase the color drop threshold and fill in the edges as much as they can. If you drag it to the left, it will decrease the threshold. So this is how we fix the color drop. If you are not happy with how it turns out 4s2, I prefer to color in my work in a traditional way, just like drawing on a piece of paper to really show the texture of the brush. So I'll take some time to fill in all the other areas. Now, I'm done coloring in. I'll use the eraser to break up all the different parts in my Lenton. Just like Well that did with the tassels. One last thing I need to do at this stage is to round these sharp ends. You don't have to do that is just my choice of style because I don't normally create work with really sharp, pointy shapes. So if you have no problem with it, just skip to the next lesson and I'll see you there. 6. Drawing Motif on Your Lantern: In this lesson, we're going to draw the motifs in our sketch onto our Lenton. And same with what we did with the Tussaud's, will be using the eraser to carve out the motif on their LinkedIn. At the moment, my sketch is underneath my drawing and I can see what's inside my Lenton. So I need to bring up the sketch layer on top of the inking layer so I can see everything clearly. Before we move on, I suggest you to make a copy of your inking layer just in case you're not happy with your drawing and you want to make some changes. I'll explain this a bit more after I've completed this step. The reason why I made a copy of this inking layer beforehand is because when I'm coughing out all these lines and shapes using the eraser, I'm drawing directly onto the layer. So if I need to make changes on the southern part of my drawing, of course, I can use two finger tap to undo. But if I have already finished drawing the whole thing and suddenly realize, maybe I could make this flower bit better. But that's a lot of steps to go back to. I can't erase the flower because I'm already using the eraser. So it's a bit tricky to use the eraser as a brush to create art works. One way to solve this problem is to create a copy of every stage of your work as you go. In this way, if things don't go well, you still have something to go back to. So you don't need to create the whole thing all over again. Now that we have finished drawing the motifs, we'll be talking about adding some filler patterns to our Linton in the next lesson. 7. Adding Filler Patterns to Your Lantern: Now up to this stage are Lenton looks pretty good on this. But if you want to make it more unique and interesting, I do suggest you to add in some filler patterns in these areas. Let me create a copy of this layer first. Before you draw the filler patterns, you may want to change the size of your brush, e.g. when I was drawing the motif, I set my brush to size act. Now I'm going to draw the fill is I'll set my brush at size. So in this way, you can create some visual interests in your work. And if we look at my example work here, you will see what I mean by creating visual interests. So obviously the motif, which are the branches, flowers, and leaves, are highlighted by the boat brushstrokes. The fillers, on the other hand, because they were created in the smallest sized brush, it looks like they are pushed back towards the backgrounds so they don't overshadow the motif. But you can still see there are some details in these areas on the Lenten, not just the branches, flowers, and leaves. So in this way, you're actually creating different layers of your work for the viewers to look at. You can also make a mark on your brush size by tapping on this plus symbol. So it's easier to go back to the size you want. For the filler patterns, you can just draw some simple lines and shapes or something you'll find Therapeutic to draw. For me. I'll just draw groups, soft curved lines stacking on top of each other. 8. Changing Colors: So at this stage are Chinese lantern is pretty much complete it, but you can see everything is in one color. The work looks a bit plane. We can actually change colors on certain parts of the Lenten to make it look a bit better. So let me just make a copy of this layer. And because everything is in separate sections, is actually quite easy for us to change colors by using color drop. I want to change the color of the top end and the bottom end of the Lenten. All I need to do is to choose the color that I want to change to. I'm going to use this pink. And then just drag and drop it onto here. Make sure you adjust the threshold as well until you are happy with the results. And I want to use the same color on some of the tests, those as well. And that's how to change colors on your work. Let me sign my work before I call it the piece. 9. The Whole Process: In this lesson, I'll use the exact same process to draw a different Linton. I'll be drawing this one with a cylinder shape in the info sheet. So I'll start from a sketch. I still use florals as the motif for this Lenten, but if you feel like doing something else, Please go for it. Next. I'll do inking and coloring. I'm using the turquoise color for this Lenten. Up to that, I use the eraser to carve out the different sections of Dilantin. You can change colors at this point. You don't have to wait to the end to do it. And then I'll continue. Use the eraser to carve out a motif and the filler patterns on Dilantin. Don't forget to sign your work when you finish everything. And that's the whole process of drawing a Chinese lantern in Procreate. 10. Outro: Thank you so much for taking this class. I hope you did have fun creating your Chinese Linton. If you had some questions, feedback, or suggestions, please do. Let me know. You can post under the discussions in this course. Send me an email or DME on social media. I'll see you all next time.